Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
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Weekly Wide-Awake: Sanctuary
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The tide pool crumples like a woman/ into the smallest version of herself,/ bleeding onto whatever touches her.
Donika Kelly, Sanctuary
I want to create and grow. I want to dance and learn. I want to bleed and breathe. I want to pay attention and be amazed. I want to be the biggest version of myself.
Being the biggest version of myself looks like falling apart and back together and apart and back together. It looks like peacocks and cheetahs and elephants. It looks like stars and irises and forgiveness. It looks like holding close and letting go. I looks like breath.
When faced with choice of living big or crumbling, I choose a big life. I chose soft edges and scar tissue. I chose risk and integrity. I chose joy and chocolate. I choose art and nature. I chose light and morning.
About Katie
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From Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.